#reign vollenga

To Hell & Back helped me find a balance – the place between chasing pleasure for oneself and being empathetic toward others. When we got together to make this film, I could really see that effort for others and effort for oneself are on the same spectrum of opportunity. This song came from my darkest experiences, and as I worked with it, I put several different masks on that experience. At first I saw it through the mask of heartbreak, then the mask of transphobia, then the mask of childhood trauma – a shifting array of masks.  What began with the form of a pop ‘survivor ballad’ became a lesson in discovering the mirrors behind the masks, peeling back the layers to find within my voice the voice of life.